If Benny Goodman was the "King of Swing," then Fletcher Henderson was the power behind the throne. Not only did Henderson arrange the music that powered Goodman's meteoric rise, he also helped launch the careers of Louis Armstrong and Coleman Hawkins, among others. Now Jeffrey Magee offers a fascinating account of this pivotal bandleader, throwing new light on the emergence of modern jazz and the world that created it.

Drawing on an unprecedented combination of sources, including sound recordings, obscure stock arrangements, and hundreds of scores that have been available only since Goodman's death, Magee illuminates Henderson's musical output, from his early work as a New York bandleader to his pivotal role in shaping the swing era. He shows how Henderson, standing at the forefront of the New York jazz scene during the 1920s and 1930s, assembled the era's best musicians, simultaneously preserving jazz's disctinctiveness and performing popular dance music that reached a wdie audience. Magee reveals how, in Henderson's largely segregated musical world, black and white musicians worked together to establish jazz, how Henderson's style rose out of collaborations with many key players, how these players deftly combined improvised and written music, and how their work negotiated artistic and commercial impulses. And we see how, in the depths of the Depression, record producer John Hammond brought together Henderson and Goodman, a fortuitous collaboration that changed the face of American music.

Whether placing Henderson's life in the context of the Great Migration or the Harlem Renaissance or describing how the savvy use of network radio made the Henderson-Goodman style a national standard, Jeffrey Magee brings to life a monumental musician who helped to shape an era.

CONTENTS:
Preface: Crossing the Tracks in Cuthbert
Introduction: Out of the Jazz Tradition
1. A New Negro from the New South
2. The "Paul Whiteman of the Race"
3. Inside the Strain: The Advent of Don Redman
4. A New Orleans Trumpeter in a New York Band
5. A Paradox of the Race?
6. Beyond the Ballroom
7. Connie's Inn Orchestra
8. Playing In the Mud
9. Building the Kingdom of Swing
10. Never Say "Never Again"
Appendix: Fletcher Henderson's Arrangements for Benny Goodman
Notes; Bibliography; Discography

JEFFREY MAGEE is an Associate Professor of Musicology at Indiana University. His writings on jazz, ragtime and American popular song have appeared in American Music, Musical Quarterly, the Cambridge History of American Music, and the Journal of the American Musicological Society.

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